Nintendo wins appeal in Wii court case

The United States Court of Appeals has upheld a previous ruling that Nintendo did not infringe on patents held by Motiva LLC.

The US International Trade Commission said in January that Motiva's sole use of its patents was to engage in a lawsuit against Nintendo, and subsequently ruled in favour of the Mario owner.

The lawsuit had been ongoing since 2008 when Motiva sued Nintendo, with the latter company arguing that the former had no intention of using the patents to either create its own product or license the products to another company.

Motiva held U.S. Patent numbers 7,292,151 and 7,492,268, which was involved a peripheral for measuring the movement of its user.

"Motiva was never close to launching a product incorporating the patented technology--nor did any partners show any interest in doing so, for years before or any time after the launch of the Wii. Motivas only remaining prototype was a product far from completion, and a multitude of development and testing steps remained prior to finalising a product for production. Moreover, the evidence demonstrated that Motivas litigation was targeted at financial gains, not at encouraging adoption of Motivas patented technology," wrote Circuit Judge Sharon Prost in the ruling.

"We are very pleased with this result," said Nintendo deputy general counsel Richard Medway in a press release. "The court confirmed that Motiva's sole activity, litigation against Nintendo, did not satisfy the ITC's domestic industry requirement."

"Nintendo has a passionate tradition of developing innovative products while respecting the intellectual property rights of others. We vigorously defend patent lawsuits when we firmly believe that we have not infringed another party's patent."